The White House on Friday will throw Sylvia Mathews Burwell into one of the most contentious jobs in Washington: running Obamacare.

The Obama administration’s new nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services will face immediate pressure from Republicans who still want to repeal the law that she’ll be implementing, Democrats who want her to make improvements to it and an industry that wants a better relationship with HHS.

Here are five problems that Burwell will confront on Day One:

Making friends on Capitol Hill

Burwell is going to have to make fast allies on Capitol Hill, but don’t count on outgoing Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to leave her any pointers. The former Kansas governor didn’t have any public friends within the GOP — a problem stemming from the intense politics around Obamacare and Republicans’ feelings that the secretary didn’t try to work with them.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees the health reform law, blasted Sebelius at a budget hearing just a few hours before her resignation became public over a series of oversight inquiries that went unanswered by the agency. But he was sympathetic to her role.

“I do know you have one of the most difficult jobs in Washington. I’ve worked with HHS all these years, and it’s not an easy job,” Hatch said Thursday morning. “I know that you’ve been back and forth and sometimes not treated as well as maybe you should be.”

Senate Republicans are going to be loath to support the confirmation of anyone whose primary charge will be to implement the health care law. Sebelius was confirmed in a 65-31 vote in 2009 with the support of nine Republicans, but only two of them are still in the Senate — Susan Collins of Maine and Pat Roberts of Kansas.

But even getting support from Democrats may be difficult. The moderates running for reelection this fall in red states certainly aren’t clamoring to tie themselves even closer to the law. The White House could have no more than five Democrats vote against Burwell to set up a 50-50 tie to be broken by the vice president.

“Sylvia Burwell is an excellent choice to be the next HHS Secretary,” Sen. John McCain tweeted.

Pushing through changes

If Burwell is confirmed, she’ll need to maintain those relationships on Capitol Hill to have any chance of either getting more funding to implement the law or making legislative improvements to Obamacare.

The House recently defeated an ostensibly bipartisan revision of the rules for insurance plans for expats, a sign that no change to the law is smooth or easy going.

Republicans will be unlikely to support Burwell’s agenda unless they get major modifications of their own in return.

“The challenge for Ms. Burwell, or any other successor, is to help Congress find the right way to repair the damage Obamacare has done to American families,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, the top Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Selling Obamacare

Sebelius never seemed fully comfortable in the role of Obamacare saleswoman. She gave plenty of speeches in states with high numbers of uninsured and testified at countless Republican-led congressional hearings about the law without making gaffes.

But her personality didn’t fit the role of enthusiastic cheerleader for the Affordable Care Act. She didn’t sit between ferns with Zach Galifianakis or flood the talk radio airwaves like the president and other members of the Obama administration did in the days leading up to the March 31 enrollment deadline.

A new public face for Obamacare will be most important in the months ahead of the second open enrollment period, which begins on Nov. 15.

Working better with insurers

Sebelius did not have bad relationships with health providers or insurers, but they were not great.

Publicly, the insurance industry held its fire with every extended deadline or HHS’s decision to allow once-canceled plans to be reinstated. But privately, they’ve been frustrated with HHS. All of those changes — most announced at the last minute — set insurers back financially and logistically. Burwell will have to make sure that the insurance companies selling policies on the exchanges stay on board for the second year.

When asked what Burwell can do to improve relationships with insurers, one industry source said simply: “Not bash them in public.”

Burwell will also have to build on the relationships Sebelius forged with governors — she frequently talked about her experiences as a governor and former insurance commissioner — as the administration pushes more states to expand Medicaid and work on their own health insurance exchanges.

The states were supposed to build their own online insurance marketplaces, but HealthCare.gov ultimately had to service 36 states.

“Her job became much harder because the states didn’t step up to the plate,” said Joel Ario, a former head of the HHS office in charge of the exchanges. “It’s ironic that she was done in by that, because I remember her as a champion of the states as laboratories of democracy.”

And some states running their own exchanges continue to limp along. There are big problems with exchanges in Oregon and Massachusetts, among others, that will require repairs before November — and they’ll most likely need HHS’s help.

Upgrading HealthCare.gov

While HHS was able to pull 7.5 million enrollments out of its hat by the deadline of the first Obamacare sign-up season, the second year is just on the horizon and plenty of improvements need to be made before then.

Make no mistake, the federal website is vastly better now than it was on Oct. 1. HealthCare.gov handled hundreds of thousands of people on March 31. But there were still glitches. And the back-end problems — the part of the system that transmits an application file to an insurance company — still has kinks that need to be worked out.

Burwell will have to lead the second open enrollment period, which will be closely watched after the fall’s HealthCare.gov disaster.